Christian mentoring and discipleship, while different in some respects, are very much one and the same. We tend to accept the idea of mentoring better, because discipleship seems to convey doing something more difficult or something we really do not want to do.

Tonight I sat at the empty table in the restaurant, or so it would seem.

Today, we are constantly being told that times are tough, that there are dark clouds on the horizon for our country, our economy, our freedoms, and there are. But, we are aliens in this world if we have truly surrendered to our God, the One and Only.

Lately, I’ve been dwelling a lot on the notion that we are all custom built by God to be whoever He wants us to be. None of us are here by random chance. All of us, and more importantly, each of us were conceived of in the mind of God long before we were ever conceived in our mothers’ wombs. I know I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating here: This is not our story.

Welcome to the village of Hato Nuevo. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the Spirit so vividly alive in a place. Here is a whole community pulling together to honor God and support each other. They really taught us a huge lesson about putting God first in their lives.

Surprise!!! UPS said they had one 22lb box from Blessings International, so I shopped lavishly for other needed supplies knowing I had lots of luggage space. At 8:30 pm last night, I found that what actually arrived from Blessings was 7 large boxes with 350lbs of Operating Room kits.

One of my favorite characters in the New Testament is John the Baptist. John was set apart from birth to perform a great service for God. John had the privilege and honor of announcing the arrival of Jesus.